Clef Notes

When I met David Gleba for the first time, he was attending the baptism of a mutual friend and wearing a coat akin to Neo from The Matrix. What was so great about it was that David hadn’t even heard of the movie. He just dressed like that, and he sported a pony tail.

When I spotted him across the aisle in the church, I purposed in my heart to meet him as soon as possible. Whoever had the gumption to look like that had to be someone interesting.

When I learned that he was a musician, all the better! He was the organist choir master at a little cathedral in Ansonia.

“Hey, I’m a musician too! I’m a singer,” I said.

“Oh yeah, what do you sing?”

“Well, I can sing classically as a soprano, but I also sing contemporary music like rock and blues.”

“Hmm. Well, I could use a soprano for our Easter service that is coming up soon. That is, if you’re any good.”

“Well, I could come over and sing for you, and then you could decide. What’s the piece? I could practice before I get there.”

So we made a date. And I practiced. And I went over there to his place in Branford to sing. I thought I was amazing.

After listening to me sing, he hesitated at the end, slowly turned toward me from having accompanied me at the piano and responded, “That’ll do, but it needs way less vibrato.”

Oh my goodness. I had met my match. A friendship was born.

I sang the Easter service and survived, and, somehow we stayed in touch. How anyone stayed in touch at that time without email or social media, I don’t know anymore.

Over the years, we’ve been involved in several projects together, mostly of my doing. He worked with all three of my children at the piano after they were each finished with my teaching. (It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything else to teach them. It was that they all hit puberty and decided I didn’t know anything anymore. Ha ha!)

One summer, he helped me teach the end of the AP Music Theory class I was running because my four-part harmony writing is not what it use to be, and there are pages and pages of rules that you have to remember all at once. When he came into the class, within a few moments, he had written two short rules on the board that summed up all the pages and pages it took most other curriculums to describe them. TWO RULES! Oh my goodness. Where was he when I was having to pass my part-writing tests in college?!

There are a lot more things to know about David, like the fact that he writes beautiful music in the Viennese classical style of the second half of the 18th century. (Think Mozart.) And that he has a wicked, quick wit. And that he plays piano from heaven. And he is a great piano teacher. And, at the age of 12, in less than 20 minutes, he single-handedly built two of the three pyramids at Giza. (Just making sure you’re paying attention.) 

And we at Crescendo Music Loft are lucky ducks that he’s agreed to come over here and teach a few lessons! He has availability on Mondays and Tuesdays between 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. Contact our office now to schedule a lesson!

Welcome, David!